


Love Wins

by Punk_mit_Keks



Category: South Park
Genre: #lovewins, AU – college, Coming Out, Drug Use, GAAAAYYY!!, M/M, Marijuana only, Swearing, including super gay characters and long haired boxing tweek :), maybe a fist fight, this is a compilation of my favorite headcanons, this is so gay, we see about that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-06
Updated: 2017-09-25
Packaged: 2018-08-13 10:07:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7972948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Punk_mit_Keks/pseuds/Punk_mit_Keks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on a tumblr prompt: “Yes it is three am in the morning and I am running down the apartment halls yelling #LoveWins wearing rainbow stuff and playing Same Love, wanna join me?”</p><p>rating may change</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Let's celebrate

Hugged by the warmth of his blanket and the darkness of his closed eyes Craig had it really comfy in his bed. Shut curtains and the ticking of his clock fainting into the distance of the otherwise silent room were nice company compared to his ever so loud roommate. Luckily Clyde wasn't there and Craig could dream away of Cloud City where cars were dashing like thunder. No other student would leave campus three weeks before finals for a relative’s birthday than the stupid crybaby Clyde. Then again no other student had to celebrate his mother’s birthday on a graveyard. Minding the circumstance his family had decided to rather celebrate her birthday than mourn her death-day. Craig didn't mind the absence and he savored the silence.

Until his slumber got interrupted by loud thumbs. They were increasing then decreasing in volume before they were increasing again. The thumbs happened in a regular rhythm and Craig could be mistaken but he felt like his bed was shaking through an earthquake. When his eyes flew open he suddenly fell from Cloud City back into his tiny bed where his feet hang over the edge due to his height. He ran a hand over his face to rub his eyes. The thumbs sounded oddly like feet bumping the ground and they were accompanied by loud screams of joy.

Craig looked at his mobile to discover it was past two am. The 'wohoo' sounds and running from the floor wasn't accompanied by more yelling or running, so there wasn't a party going on but the clumsy oaf was alone running up and down the damn hallway. What the fuck was wrong with this guy? And then he screamed some screeches and then: “Love wins! Woohooo!!”

What?

Was that guy cereal?

By the next scream Craig had had enough and made it out of his cozy bed. A breeze snug between his bare legs and even though he missed his bed instantly he didn't care enough to at least put on some pants. It was fucking two am, it was okay to wear only an old, worn out off-white shirt, stating 'I walk with WASD and sprint with shift’ and boxer briefs when opening his door. Was he the only one on the floor bothered or why did no one else put a stop to this yet?

When he peeked through his opened door he saw a guy with shoulder long blond hair running around, his hands were both lifted into the air and in one hand he was holding a small rainbow flag. His sweatpants had coffee beans and mugs printed all over them and fitted so sloppy they revealed a streak of his skin and his coin slot. A pink oversize T-shirt which neckline was outstretched completed his mismatching outfit.

“Hey!” Craig was tired and he was too tired to recognize if his monotone pitch succeeded in conveying his annoyance. Though he was used for people to perceive him as intimidating, so when he failed to sound annoyed by will, his default mode would still do the job. “Keep it down! People are trying to sleep.”

“Oh!” The guy jumped and looked around the hallway in search of the voice's owner. He made an effort to pull his sweatpants up when he turned around, though they slipped down to the previous position almost instantly. Craig recognized the word 'princess' written on his pink shirt in silver capitals. For a sec it reminded him of the metrosexual phase his hometown went through.

So. Fucking. Gay.

Finally, his gaze focused on Craig. His blond lion’s mane was an ungroomed mess and his sunken eyes were red and decorated with poofy bags. Either his skin was really thin there or he wasn't sleeping so well. Considering it was two am at a workday and he was screaming in the hallways drunken and alone – no scratch drunken, he was probably high – the later was more likely to be the case. His face was thin with a sharp chin and a crooked nose, it matched the rest of his square but thin sketched figure. He was short, but in relation to Craig everyone was short, and when he took his arms down Craig saw some bruises on them.

Craig had the feeling he must have seen this guy before.

Well it was very likely they lived at the same floor, of course they must have run into each other at some point.

Any moment he would apology, in a soft almost frightened voice, browbeaten by Craig’s body height and cold eyes. Though nothing of this happened. Instead his skewed face split into just as crooked a smile, “Wanna join me?”

“What?” caught by surprise Craig's face dropped from his normal resting-bitch-face into confusion.

“I'm celebrating! Love wins! It's so awesome, totally unexpected! Never believed 'merica would be faster with those laws than Italy!”

“Uh, What?"

This guy wasn’t scared of him; this was… weird. Craig didn’t even recognize how damn refreshing it actually was to be met with kindness instead of suspicion, so unused and weird it was. This guy must be very high if he even forgot basic human instincts like fear.

"Yeah, unbelievable, right?!"

"Aren't those old news?” Like three days old news. Craig furrowed one brow while the other was lifted up. What had Italy to do with this?

“Huh?"

"Yeah, passed that law on Monday, today 's Thursday."

"Oh, really?!" he made a high strung face, like in panic his eyes flew open and his hands gestured wildly, "Oh man, I missed the party?"

Craig shrugged. He didn't want to tell him that there hadn't been a party. There weren't so many openly gay people on campus and for most peers live had been going on as if nothing had changed. He himself had noted the news only through his gmx account when checking his mails. He didn't know if the small LGBT+ club was planning on any events and looking at the two of them, if anyone, than the guy in front of him should be the one knowing if there had been anything in the planning. Despite, that wasn't the point of concern at the moment.

"Still. It's so cool!” that guy was looking directly into Craig's eyes and the green in them sparkled. The white around his Iris was miscoloured into red. Yep, he was definitely high.

“Come on, let's celebrate!” he was waving the mini rainbow flag he held in his hand. This guy was genuinely excited, his smile got even brighter and Craig realized that, heck, he was cute. Yet he was still disturbing the whole hallways sleep.

“Yeah, 's nice and all,” Craig fell back to his monotone pitch, “but dude, it's two am and I've got to stay up in five hours or something. Celebrate in your room. Or better, go to bed and celebrate tomorrow.”

“Oh,” his eyes became vivid and his gaze bore into Craig. He paused a moment before he tore is mouth open and when he did so his voice became rapid and loud until he was basically yelling. “I woke you? Ohmygod! I'm so sorry! It's the middle of the night, I totally forgot. Everyone is asleep, ah, oh man, I'm so sorry for waking you. Gosh whydoesthisalwayshappen. You said it's Thursday?! Ididn'tevennotice, ohno! I'msosorry!”

A bit puzzled Craig's eyes fluttered of the sudden outburst and not sure what to do with this guy he froze in place and lifted his hands in a defensive manner, as if it could calm the other guy. "Hey, dude, everything's okay. Just, go to your room?"

His breath was still erratic and he stumbled a shit-ton of apologies and regrets in such a haste he sounded like he would start to hyperventilate. Overwhelmed by the situation Craig's face set into a frown. He had to calm this dude. And he didn't know how. Cause really, how often was he interacting with another human in an affectionate way instead of right-out telling them to fuck off? He could count those moments with one hand.

His first instinct was to touch this guy’s arm, in an effort to ground him. Bring him back to the situation and reassure him everything was fine. God, wasn't marijuana’s effect normally to calm people down?

When griping his arm Craig noticed that despite being thin it didn't felt bony but firm under his touch. The boy was startled of the contact but his high strung eyes flew onto Craig like he was trying to make sense of the situation and their touch and all of this.

"Calm. Down."

Craig said it slowly, a firm instruction and the guy’s breath missed a beat before he exhaled slowly everything that was inside his lungs and returned to a normal pattern. His eyes were still vivid and set into a frown that bore into Craig like this guy's gaze was touching his spine. It was unsettling. Craig clenched his jaw in his effort to not shy away from the look, but the chill creeping at his back made it the more difficult.

Then the intensity that lay in the air got broken by a voice, "Boys, everything okay?"

It was the sleepy voice of the girl two doors next to Craig and he turned around to her to assure her that everything was fine and they'd go back to their room any minute. The blond guys giggle erupting from him wasn't helping to sound convincing. A short moment Craig felt self-conscious of her seeing him in his underwear and the amount of hair he had at his weirdly twisted legs, even though he had been running around this floor covered only by a towel often enough. She looked confused but went back into her room and during the duration of this interaction Craig kept his hand around the other guy's arm.

He figured it was best if he brought him to his room and the moment the girl's door squeaked shut he turned to him to ask for his room number.

The boy’s hands were shaking and he was looking into space like he had lost something, a thought, or a fragment of reality, and he was waiting for it to come back. Or maybe he had been falling asleep while standing, or would look at his hands any moment and start laughing, cause he was still pretty high and maybe the world looked to him like a children’s coloring book a rainbow had vomited at.

Gosh, why was Craig the one who had to deal with something like this?

He asked for that guy’s room number and when he snitched back into reality he mumbled another apology and they started their way towards room 304. It was the floor above.

The staircase was cold under Craig's bare feet and on their way he closed the opened window they were passing. The regret of not having put on something that would actually warm him rose up again and the guy next to him, who altered between giggling silently into himself and mumbling apologies wasn't helping in giving him any comfort within the current situation.

"You don't have to bring me."

"It's okay."

Craig yawned and it was a lie, but also very much not, cause he just wanted to be sure that this guy was tucked under a blanket and wouldn't disturb his sleep any further.

They reached room number 304 and Craig stumbled into the room behind the blond guy as if he had been invited. The first greeting Craig received was the lingering remains of the tangy smell he had recognized to identify as the number one college drug. The guy made it to his desk were he placed his hands to hold his balance and giggled again. Dim light of the bedside table revealed the room to be clearly split in two different areas by him and his roommate.

One half of the room was glittering in a colorful mess, while the other side was decorated solely in black. Though both sides were a crowded mess of random possessions. The walls were clustered with posters of the cure on one side and Beyoncé on the other and at the ground lay a lot of laundry, even more than in Craig's room tended to lay. Between the two halves of the room was a little couch table and a fancy coffee machine was placed there, surrounded by a lot of mugs. A person sat on the second bed within the black area with big headphones and snoring. His roommate. He must have fallen asleep listening to music. A strand of his dark hair was dyed red and like the rest of his possessions he was dressed solely in black.

Craig had no further reason to investigate the roommate and instead instructed his company to go to bed, who of course didn't listen but giggled.

"Come on, let's celebrate!"

Craig rolled his eyes, there must be a way to get this guy to shut up. "Yeah tomorrow. Now you sleep."

"But I can get married, that’s worth celebrating."

The next question kind of slipped out of his mouth before he could remember that he normally didn't care enough about other people’s life decisions to ask something like this.

“You want to get married?"

Craig had never put too much thought into that marriage thing. He didn’t quite understand the hype around it, uncared of the partners’ gender. How could anyone ever make this kind of promise, when life was ever changeling fleeting by. Wasn’t this kind of promise deemed to be a lie? And then people threw out so much money they could buy a fancy car from, just to make a big party and get a piece of paper as evidence of their lie.

"Dunno. Maybe. Someday?" He shrugged and to Craig's relieve he also yawned.

"Okay, so go to bed now and celebrate with your boyfriend tomorrow."

He gestured at the bed and the guy in front of him was jerking off his T-shirt. Craig was pleasantly surprised to see that despite being thin he was well trained. He even had a six-pack. He let his shirt drop to the pile on the floor and Craig's eyes flickered from his muscles to the bruises of his arms.

"Don't have a boyfriend."

He said it so casually and then gripped for his waistband like he was to pull down his trousers next. Craig didn't answer and swallowed instead. This guy was high and probably didn't notice, but that statement in combination with his action sounded like a really inappropriate invitation. To top it all he wasn't wearing any underpants, so when his pants dropped to the pile and he shook his feet out of the fabric he was standing naked in front of Craig.

Craig immediately felt the flush heat his face. This wasn’t the first time someone undressed in front of him. And it wasn’t the first time it made him uncomfortable in another way than second-hand-embarrassment. It tightened his chest and made his head to go numb. Like it wasn’t a normal thing to see a fellow male undress. Though _this_ fellow male was gay. He wouldn’t get uncomfortable of Craig’s staring. He might actually would act on it.

Which could be even worse.

Craig didn’t get caught staring. The boy wasn’t facing him but the bed, so, regrettably, Craig wasn't able to see much of his crotch. Though he got a very good view of that ass before the boy moved into his bed and covered himself with his blanket.

" _You_ celebrate with me."

Craig was yet dazed from the view he has had and breathed out an answer that contradicted his true intentions, "Okay.”

Shit.

Though maybe he could use that lie, cause at least it would make this guy to stay in his room. “Tomorrow we'll celebrate, but promise to sleep now."

“Yeah. But tomorrow...”

Craig rolled his eyes again, but at least that little lie had worked, nice. Craig turned around, he felt if he wouldn't leave as soon as possible he might be doing something he'll regret later. Like agree to loud and proud celebrate gay rights and make the whole campus believe he was a homosexual as well. Like stare at that guy for too long and make himself reconsider that maybe he _was_ kind of a homosexual himself. Except he already had done both. He hoped that guy wouldn't remember his face the next day and the shorter he stayed, the better were his chances for this to happen.

"Hey uhm... I can't sleep so well."

Those words interrupted Craig's movements and made him to halt. He turned back to look at that guy, not sure what he was implying.

"...Okay?”

"Please stay with me?"

Craig grumbled, "Come on, just close your eyes and think about... dunno, your wedding dress or what do I know."

"Only for a while?”

Gosh, this guy was cute. He had it figured out how to use puppy eyes and a persuasive mousy voice. It was so unfair and Craig was very reluctantly, but in the end he was sitting at that guy's beds edge not sure how he ended up there.

“What's your name?"

"...Craig."

"You can call me Tweek," he introduced himself and then yawned.

He lay at his side and had his head propped up by one arm. The blanket reached his belly, but didn't cover his chest and the awareness that he was naked underneath left Craig's hands sweaty and his stomach tingling. The ridiculous amount of hair he had on his legs stood on end and he wished he could pull them under Tweek's blanket. Yet there was a risk to accidentally bump him by doing so and Craig didn’t want to risk it. So he had to accept his legs to stay cold for a bit longer.

"Is this your real name, or just the name I can call you?"

"It's what my friends call me."

"Tweekers?" The idea made Craig grin. What a mean nickname.

"No! Tweek. Just Tweek."

"So it's a nickname?"

“Sort of.”

He giggled. Was he implying they were friends? Craig didn't read too much into it, after all this guy was stoned. He sat at the bed's edge and looked at the bookcase at Tweek's head board. The first thing he noticed were the boxing gloves hanging there and then he was able to form the connection between those and Tweek's well trained muscles and bruised arms.

"We celebrate tomorrow, right?"

"Uh ... yeah."

"Promise?"

"…You're boxing?”

“Oh,” the boy turned to look at his gloves, then he turned his head back, the same moment dropped his arm so his head planted on his pillow and his blond hair sprawled over it. “Yeah.”

He seemed strangely shy about that information. The tingling in Craig's stomach spread to his chest and shoulders and made him uncomfortable.

“Cool.”

Tweek didn't reply and a brief moment the only sound between them was that of his roommate's snoring.

“That's a pretty tough sport.”

“Uh, well.” Tweek shrugged his shoulders as if it was nothing. God, he was so cute.

“Do your arms hurt?”

“Huh?”

Tweek was sitting up to investigate his arms, like he hadn't noticed the bruises before.

“Oh, that's normal. Doesn't hurt.”

He said it in such naturalness, shrugged it off so easily, like it really was the most normal thing in the world. Like there lay absolutely no concern in him getting hurt on the regularly.

It was amazing. It was a clear contrast to the first impression he had left in his super gay attire. Craig had never expected for this little twink to practice such a tough sport. He felt a sort of respect for this guy arise within him. He wasn't very sportive, he was on the tall and scrawny side, but whenever he had to lift the brought water bottles to the second floor he started panting heavily. So everyone more sportive than him was impressive to him, of course he was totally mind blown it was such a violent sport like boxing Tweek practiced.

A delightful image rose up in all its details, of whoever was to make fun of Tweek for his sexuality, or fashion sense, would get a clean hit and a broken nose from him. It was a beautiful image, satisfying even, and Craig thought about how nice it would be to get one or two tricks learned from this guy.

Adding the knowledge of how to accomplish a good and well placed fist to showing off his middle finger would significantly increase his repertoire on social interactions.

Though, if he was to ask for any lessons they would have to meet again and then he would have to celebrate #LoveWins just like promised a moment ago and the whole campus would think he was gay. It was a dilemma.

Though the conversation took a turn on its own when Tweek changed the topic.

“So you're running with WASD?”

“Uh, yeah, and you're a princess?”

Tweek giggled again. “Isn't that obvious?” he nodded his head to Craig haughtily. A cocky grin playing on his lips.

Fuck, maybe it wouldn't be that bad to meet up with him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trivia: Tweek being partly from italy is based on a headcanon from @handbagmurder. she heeadcanoned him to be partly France. I liked the idea of his mum to be from europe and his name to be actually a nickname, but I don't want to do research for french and shit, so I choose italyinstead. If I get really fucking lazy I'll change him to be partly german instead of italy cause then I don't need to do any research (I'm german) but we'll see about that, atm he's partly from italy. :)
> 
> I started writing this in may and wanted to upload it when all three chapters are finished, and now I continued writing and then I expanded the storyline so it will be ~5 chapters and I’m so excited about this I decided to post chapter 1 right away :D.  
> seeing that I started this in may and we have september now you probably have to wait 4 month for the next update. Oops.  
> Also sorry to everyone waiting for me to update the cupcake story, haha xD° I'm a slow writer ._.


	2. Happy

Craig sat in his lecture, not quite concentrating on the topic and yawning all so often. He was sitting somewhere in the backrow of the room that managed to capture around 120 people and was filled to the half. He engaged in one of his favorite activities, watching his peers laptop screens and trying to figure out who was really paying attention and what the other's, who didn't, were up to.

That one guy two rows in front of him was harvesting his Facebook farm and another guy three rows in front was repainting Bob Ross in paint tool. It caught Craig's attention as it was something unexpected and sort of useless. The painting looked like a mess drawn by a dog. Yet there was something relaxing about watching the movements of the digital brush flow over the screen, and watching Bob Ross draw the landscape of a beach. Craig was so relaxed and soothed, he practically felt the sand under his feet.

Though their lecturer must have said something important cause the guy paused the video and opened a word document to type something down. The suddenness of this made Craig to tense and even though he didn't move his head from his crossed arms on his desk he was startled. Even with finals approaching he didn't feel the need to listen and make notes like his peers. Having only slept for three hours that night was a good excuse to not pay attention right now. If it was something really important, he could still copy Kevin’s notes later. Instead he let his eyes search for the next peer who was doing something more interesting on his laptop than taking notes.

On his search he found something so unexpected that he came to sit straight. Six rows in front of him sat Tweek!

Wait; what?

No, there sat a guy with his blond hair combed back into a stubly ponytail. He just looked a lot like Tweek, so of course that guy he met the night before was Craig’s first association at that view.

Though he wasn’t Tweek, he couldn’t be Tweek. That would be too much of coincidence. Just the night before the little twink told him he studied history. And Craig was sitting in a lecture of astrophysics, not history! Though there was still a chance for him to be Tweek. When he started college two years ago he studied psychology he said. He still goes into some lectures of psychology out of interest, he also visits lectures of religion studies and philosophy when he has the time. So he seems to be a guy who struggles to make decisions. Or he simply had too many interests. Who knows what he will be studying for real in the end? Maybe next semester he’ll change his topic to anthropology or something. So maybe after Craig told he studies astrophysics Tweek figured to take a look into that field as well and it was Tweek who was sitting six rows in front of him?!

For some reason Craig’s chest tightened.

At some point last night Craig made it back to his own room. His bed had been cold then and he missed Tweek's warm blanket. A look at his watch had confirmed that he had spent a whole hour at that twink’s place. They talked about gaming and their study fields and after further questioning he told Craig more about his sport. That boxing was actually a very strategic game, and it was about the strength of mind and using the correct technique. Observing your opponent and hit at the right moment, trying to get him to give you an opening. Correct shielding was substantial to not give openings yourself.

Craig still thought the sport to be inappropriate violent, though Tweek seemed exhilarated while talking. And though he was beyond cute in that state so Craig liked watching him talk, it was no topic to get him tired so they could both get back to sleep anytime soon.

So Craig forgot his embarrassment and stretched his legs over Tweek’s bed to cover them with part of the blanket. He managed to do so without accidentally bumping Tweek. They sat at opposite sides of the bed and Tweek was investigating his now covered legs, before his eyes quivered back up to meet with Craig’s. Then he bit his lower lip, a gesture that made Craig feel dizzy, before he asked if Craig was cold. He affirmed the question but also shrugged since he had just fixed the problem.

It was the moment Tweek choose to suggest for him to go back to his own room. He apologized again for having made Craig stay so long. Though he was calm and apologized only once. Nothing like his previous rant, and Craig, who at first didn't wanted to stay, then didn't want to leave. Tweek had shown him so many different sides of him during such a short time span and without realizing it, Craig had become invested. He was wondering what else there was to this guy, how many secrets he had, that would surprise Craig and add to Tweek’s complexity.

He hadn't slept very well that night. His bed didn’t felt that comfy anymore and it took him a while to fall to sleep. Seeing that twink here felt like a hallucination. It must be a hallucination. And then the guy turned his head to talk with his neighbor and his profile revealed a straight nose and normal eyes. So it wasn’t Tweek. Of course it wasn't Tweek; what had he been thinking?

Craig sighed.

Not sure how to feel about this whole ordeal (Relieved? Disappointed? A little bit of both?) he figured he should try and concentrate at least once.

After all finals were approaching in three weeks.

 

***

 

There had been two other guys that looked oddly like Tweek during the days that passed. Though Craig’s mind was seeing things, cause every time he looked a second time to make sure, it became obvious that those guys couldn’t be Tweek at how differently they looked. His subconscious probably tried to tell him something when it was constantly on the search for blond guys. Like that he liked the look of blond hair that was almost golden. For aesthetic reasons.

Then Craig's calendar stated it was Saturday. Yet it was no day Craig could take off, not with finals threatening his success in college, so he and Kevin had a learning meeting in the library.

The student workstations in the library were sections with rows of tables. Three tables next to each other and to each of them there was another table facing them on the opposite site. It was actually a big group table despite the lamps in between that separated the long table arrangement into single learn areas.

When Craig approached the table arrangement he and Kevin usually sat at, he was surprised to be actually the first to arrive. He checked his watch. He was ten minutes late, like everyone was used from him. So Craig sat down on their table and started unpacking his stuff. Kevin being late meant something had happened, so next on he would check his phone and write him a short message. Something like ‘you’re late.’

Craig didn’t have time to check his phone. Another person interrupted him in the rudest way possible, considering they were in a library. He was loud. The thing was, he wasn’t actually saying anything; he was just making a weird sound. Something that was a combination of odd tic, surprised shock and disapproving grunting. Craig looked up at the instance and saw a blond guy sitting at the other end of the table rows.

The sound must have been involuntarily since the guy didn’t remove his sunken eyes from his paper. He had his left hand buried in his messy hair that reached his shoulders. His teeth abused the end part of the pencil he was holding and his eyebrows were twisted together.

Nice try shitty brain, another blond guy that looked oddly like Tweek.

A second sound, just as involuntarily, with the same pitch and same ‘gah’ vocalization made his shoulders jerk and his left eye to blink.

Holy fuck, it was Tweek! This was certainly Tweek. His brain wasn’t seeing things and interpreting blond guys wrongly but this guy _was_ the one boy he had met some days ago.

The thought of writing Kevin a message was forgotten for now. Everything was forgotten except to look at Tweek. He was different. His hair was even more chaotic and the pleats at his forehead told a story of worries and stress. His mouth twitching suggested a growing annoyance. Though the most noticeable difference were his jerks. The last time Craig met him he wasn’t trembling and twitching constantly.

What the fuck happened with this boy? He hadn’t been the calmest then, too, but now he seemed stressed out. He was a mess.

Craig’s eyes were attached at him.

What if he took an overdose of some stupid drug and now his body was in overdrive?

Then Tweek jerked into an upright sitting position and with a groan ran both his hands through his hair. He was visibly frustrated with his papers. So, no drugs at fault, but just the daily madness called college stress?

Either way; poor guy.

Tweek looked back at his notes, a new determination in his eyes. His eyes were sunken, but also very round and big. His features were so weird. With those ugly fish eyes and square jaw but thin cheeks and every symmetric was disturbed by the bends of his crooked nose. He wasn’t handsome. Though it would be too much to call him ugly.

He was unique. In a hidden way he was even cute. And his mouth was perfect. The little bow in the upper lip’s curve, and thin but damn inviting when he pursed them while writing his notes. Twisting his lips while working must be a subconscious habit of his.

With a slight spark of disappointment Craig noticed that he was wearing normal clothes. A pair of plain jeans and a short sleeved green button-up. No rainbow stuff or wild patterns.

Suddenly he twitched again.

Maybe he wasn’t on drugs. Maybe he had an illness.

Like Tourette or something.

Craig had seen that kind of behavior before. In high school when he and Thomas had spent a lot of time together Craig had seen a lot of people with this kind of tics. His friend Thomas never jerked like that, but some of the other teens in his Tourette’s group therapy did.

Thomas had different tics. Verbal tics. And Thomas had been blond too. And gay as well. And also had lips that had been just as inviting, especially when something filthy came out of them. As much as it was hurtful that Thomas was distressed by his tics, there was something about them Craig really liked.

Images bubbled up, forgotten memories of a time when Thomas voice would say ‘yeah, like that’ and Craig complied. And every ‘fuck’ and ‘shit’ out of his friend’s mouth sounded like poetry. Craig loved to ran his hands through that ash-blond hair and he took the invitation of those lips plenty of times. They tasted sweet.

The memory tasted bittersweet.

Just remembering those teenage days made Craig’s breath shallow. The delicate little paradise, the ignorant bliss that grew out of past mistakes and pain and pleasure. Touching this boy had been his oxygen. Maybe the only time in his life he had been happy.

Tweek looked up from his notes and met Craig’s eyes in a furious gaze. The sudden movement made Craig to snap out of his memory. Oh shit, had he been staring at Tweek this whole time long?

“Take a picture, will last longer” Tweek snarled at him, he was pretty pissed off.

“Uh, what?!”

“Stop staring! What’s wrong with you, are you some kind of creep, or something?!”

Tweek looked back at his notes and Craig felt so busted and embarrassed, he turned his head away with so much force it started to spin. Fuck, fuck, fucking fuck. Tweek noticed him staring. And he was fucking angry. This was embarrassing.

Also, he didn’t recognize Craig! Wait, he didn't recognize Craig? He forgot all about their conversation? Craig felt something strange, he couldn't quite pin it. His mouth and shoulders felt heavy. This was what he had been hoping for. Tweek forgot so he wouldn't have to keep his promise of celebrating together; that was a good thing. Still he also felt quite disappointed that Tweek didn't remember him. Those feelings were confusing, it was a good thing he wouldn't have to out himself, so there was no need to be disappointed, goddammit. The most annoying was that he also still felt the adrenalin of being caught staring. As if he’d done something wrong.

He looked at his mobile. Almost fifteen minutes had passed since he arrived at the library. Holy fuck, had he been staring this long? There was also a message from Kevin sitting in his mailbox since Craig entered the library. It was excusing Kevin for coming around half an hour too late because his sister Esther needed assistance. In what exactly he didn’t say.

“Wait, I know you?”

It was Tweek’s voice. He sounded less angry now so Craig dared to look up again to meet those green eyes.

“Yeah, you’re Craig.”

“No.”

The fuck. Why did he negate something obvious like this? Craig’s head was numb and he wasn't sure how to feel about this situation. What should he do? Or say? His hands felt sweaty and he was probably panicking, he wasn’t sure, but he felt paralyzed. And trapped.

“Yeah, you are Craig. I didn’t recognize you at first with the hat!” he meant the blue chullo Craig was wearing religiously, even during summer and indoors. Except when sleeping. “Hey, oh man, sorry for yelling at you. I’m just so stressed out because of finals, and you were staring at me, man, I thought you were a serial killer or something.”

“Huh?”

“Ah, uhm, nevermind. How are you?”

Craig shrugged.

The remains of the adrenaline were still bugging the insides of his skin. The room temperature must have gone down suddenly when he felt chilly. Craig had just been staring at him while thinking about make out sessions with his ex best friend, how could Tweek stay so damn casually? He felt incredibly wrong.

“Also, sorry for having you made stay so long, you know, the other night.”

Craig didn’t respond and Tweek tilted his head. And he was cute like that. When he was relaxed, without those visible worries at his forehead, even though he was still twitching occasionally. And his perfect lips hinted a smile. There lay his hidden cuteness. In his gestures and kind words.

“I hope you got enough sleep then?”

“Yeah,” Craig pressed out. He should at least try to be part of this conversation.

“You did? Oh man, I’m so glad, I was worried half the night.”

Craig just shrugged and then he looked at his long bony fingers that were sweaty and looked like sticks. The situation showed him once again that his social skills were that of a rock. Awesome.

“I guess I need to say thank you. I always apologize too much, but what I actually want to say, when I say sorry, is, thanks. Thanks for staying so long and talking with me, I really enjoyed it.”

He was cute. And he was smiling. He was so cute it hurt. Craig heard the blood rush through his ears and didn’t respond. He was too confused and also his cheeks burnt. He had enjoyed it, too. He didn't want to leave the room and if he wouldn't have had a lecture the next day, he wouldn't have minded for them to stay up the whole night.

Should he admit on it? That he enjoyed it as well? Though he still didn't want to celebrate #lovewins. When Tweek did recognize him, he must also remember this.

Craig looked at the desk and went with a soft “Yeah” accompanied by another shrug. He tried his hardest not to think about how the burning sensation at his cheeks meant that they must be visibly red. Though, it wasn’t easy to not feel even more embarrassed by that thought.

He dared to take a fast peek at Tweek’s expression. He was smiling even wider than before. Craig should probably just admit on it and get their conversation going _._

 _I liked it as well, would you like to drink a tea and talk sometime?_ Or, _I liked it as well, would you teach me boxing?_

He took a deep breath and looked at Tweek. Those green eyes were sparkling and his smile evened out everything unbalanced at his face. He was handsome. This little twink was handsome. It knocked the breath out of Craig, despite he still opened his mouth in an attempt to get their conversation going.

“Hey, sorry for being late.”

Craig turned his head to the side to see by who he just got cut short. Kevin waved his hand while approaching their table, an apological yet clueless smile on his lips.

Idiot.

Craig turned his head back at Tweek, who was as well looking at Kevin. Whatever he meant to say just now, he had missed his chance.

Kevin came to a halt and noticed the blond guy looking at him. Then he looked back at Craig before he addressed Tweek.

„Oh, hi, are you a friend of Craig? I’m Kevin.” and with that he offered his hand for a greeting. Tweek hesitated but then took the invitation. He had to get up from his chair and the hand shaking took place pretty much in front of Craig’s face.

“Tweek. Hi.”

“Didn’t mean to interrupt you, keep going.” Kevin said and sat down, though he didn’t give them the chance to keep going when he looked at Craig’s desk, “You didn’t even start yet?”

The only response from Craig was a shrug. Then Tweek intervened, “Oh man, sorry, that’s my fault. I was talking too much.”

“You weren’t” Craig assured and earned another smile from Tweek. And a twitch.

“Anyway, I should leave you back to studying.”

“Hey, I didn’t mean to shoo you away. You want to study with us? It will be fun.” Kevin suggested.

“Ah, no, I don’t want to disturb you.”

“You wouldn’t! Talking with Craig is like talking with a coma patient sometimes, it would be nice to have some company.”

“Oh man, I study history. I don’t think there’s much in common with astrophysics.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Well, see you around, Craig?”

Tweek was standing up and so Craig had to look up to meet his gaze.

“Uh, yeah, I guess.”

Tweek gave him a smile. A smile that warmed Craig at all the right spots, like in his chest and his cheeks. And then Craig was actually smiling back. You know, a hint of a smile. A little bit of muscular work against gravitation at his mouth corners. A Craig Tucker smile.

“Didn’t knew you actually have friends.” Kevin grinned when Tweek was out of earshot. He was acting like it was a big deal, but Craig ignored the comment to watch Tweek leave.

Because suddenly, in this moment, he knew what he felt.

He was happy.

 


	3. Say 'Hi'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo, the last part of the chapter isn't finished yet, but since I haven't uploaded nothin in two month and I have an exam on tuesday and need some distraction I decided to cut this into half and post the first half. :)  
> enjoy

He breathed in deeply, slow and controlled. Just as slow and controlled he exhaled. Concentrating on his breath was supposed to help him calm down.

It was Monday afternoon and Craig stood in front of room 304. Tweek’s room. There was no need to be nervous. Yet, no matter how often he told himself, there was still sweat forming at his palms and his heart beat loud in his ears. His fist was raised for around three minutes now but he still hadn’t knocked.

_Come on, just knock, stupid pussy._

Just knock, say hi, yeah that’s good, that what he gotta say, ‘hi.’ Okay and then, Tweek would probably greet him back with a ‘hi’ on his own. Yeah, good.

Oh god, shit, but what should he say afterwards?

Craig turned around and rubbed his hands over his face. He controlled his deep breathes again to calm down. He could do this; he knew he could. _Just fucking knock at his door, jerk!_ He was lifting his fist, ready to knock, say hi, maybe embarrass himself, but who cared about embarrassment after the way their first and even their second meeting went?

So, yeah, just knock, everything’s going to be okay.

“What you want?”

A guy to his right asked and Craig turned around to look at the owner of the slightly pissed voice. It was that guy in black he had seen at Tweek’s room before. Everything of him was black except that strand of red hair in front of his eyes.

Craig didn’t answer him, he took his raised hand down and looked at him. He was just as short as Tweek was. They continued their useless stare battle of deadpan expressions for a while, before the goth got impatient.

“Did Damien send you?”

“What?”

“Tell him he’ll get his money when we have it.”

He fumbled with his keys to get the right one and then bumped Craig when stepping in front of the door. A clear signal for Craig to get out of the way. He didn’t acknowledge Craig while doing so and concentrated on opening the door. Another clear signal for Craig to leave.

Ignoring all that Craig moved only one step back when he got shoved away so rudely, just enough to not come in contact with the other guy. Though, he still stood in his personal space. Craig didn’t bother; he was occupied with processing what he had heard. Who the heck was Damien? This emo was accusing him to be someone he wasn’t. A debt collector or someone otherwise corrupt. Someone who associated with that Damien guy he apparently owed money.

He knew his looks weren’t giving away the most trustworthy vibes, but never before someone accused him to be a mobster. He felt more offended by that than he’d like to admit. Though, apparently, the goth associated with those people himself, seeing as he owed someone money. Or rather ‘they’ owed someone, whoever else was included in that pronoun. It would be only logical if Tweek was included as well. Craig felt uneasy when a thought hit him, the thought of Tweek having connections to the Italian mafia.

“You’re still here?” the guy said displeased. For thinking Craig was here to threaten him, he was adventurously arrogant. Craig felt the urge to flip him off, though he restrained, this emo wasn’t worth the effort.

“Who’s Damien?”

The goth gave Craig a look over, like he didn’t believe what Craig was implying. “You’re not send by him?”

“No.”

“That’s better, you wouldn’t stand a chance against Tweek anyway.”

Craig clenched his jaw. It was not enough to went his annoyance and so he did it. He flipped the bird at this guy. He wanted to visit Tweek, not be misjudged by this emo. Even though he was right, in a box fight he wouldn’t stand a chance against Tweek; but what did this emo know?!

“Oh, very mature,” The goth commented before he made a movement with his head to flip the red strands of hair out of his face.

“Where is he?”

“Who?”

“Tweek.”

“Why you wanna know?”

“I’m a…” and that felt weird, was it really okay to say it this way? To word it like that? Tweek said only friends called him that name. Yet he introduced himself as ‘Tweek’ towards Kevin as well, so screw that statement. “…friend.” Here, he did it, Craig used that word anyway. Wow. That felt great.

This guy gave him another look over. And when Craig before thought he didn’t like that guy, then now he really hated him.

“He’s at the gym. Back whenever.”

“Back whenever?”

“You know Tweek, trains like a maniac.”

“Okay.” Well that didn’t go according to plan. “Tell him Craig was here.”

“Whatever.” He made that hair-flip head movement again and with that he went into his room and shut the door.

Rude.

***

Craig lay at his bed with his laptop. After his plan had been unsuccessful, even after how much effort it took out of him, he felt too uninspired to learn or work on his papers or really anything. He killed some time with watching Red Racer and scrolling mindlessly through his tumblr, until he had an idea and plugged his headphones in. He opened youtube and watched the first results he found when he simply entered ‘boxing’ into the search bar.

‘Best 20 boxing knockouts of 2016’. Shit, that was impressive. And scary. Craig still had no idea of boxing except that it was violent and dangerous. It looked like a socially accepted excuse to right out thrash someone.

Though most of those knockouts were clean hits at the head. What Tweek said was true, without good shielding you’re out in one round.

He watched further videos of fights, he didn’t know what to enter into search to see something spectacular, he also didn’t know who was big in business. So he mostly went with other compilations and whatever else he got recommended based on his previous video.

Then it occurred to him to enter ‘Tweek boxing’ into the search bar. To his big surprise he actually found one video. It misspelled him as ‘Tweak’, though when starting it he recognized the blonde at the instance. The video was uploaded by a user called ‘Jimbo’.

His heart raced while he watched Tweek round his opponent. He was younger here and the timestamp confirmed the video was three years old. The quality was shitty and shaky from the person filming not holding his cam properly. Tweek dodged and took two hits before he landed a hit of his own. He didn’t twitch at all, and his expression was focused and determined. His hair short and wild. Craig licked his lips and was so focused on his screen he didn’t notice Clyde to enter their room and start a conversation with him. Tweek was too captivating and his opponent was half a head bigger than him, though the same age and stature. The fight was going to end into a draw with the way they were evenly dodging and landing hits.

Clyde slumped at Craig’s bed and startled him, ignoring Craig’s headphones and demanded his attention. Craig didn’t give him said and looked back at his screen to see Tweek growl like a mad man and lunge at his opponent. That’s when his laptop got effectively closed down by Clyde’s body who just stretched out diagonally on top of Craig and his laptop. His ugly face deformed into puppy eyes and a pout.

“Dude!” Craig objected.

“’Dude’ you back, asshole. Don’t ignore me when I need to talk to you.”

Craig scoffed. “I’m busy!”

Clyde was back from his trip home since Sunday and except of a ‘How’s your mum?’ and ‘Still dead, jerk’ they hadn’t exchanged many words. So, Craig suspected he had a point here. What Clyde needed at times like these was support, or some cuddling. But he learned a long time ago to stop expecting that from Craig. Craig was so anti-touching the only times Clyde would get a hug from him was as part of his present at his birthday. And this only because Clyde once whined and pouted about them never hugging. Craig just didn’t know how to handle affection. How to be nice to someone.

Though he wasn’t heartless. And he was willing to listen to Clyde, even after he got interrupted so rudely. “Sup?”

“I need your help with my calculation bullcrap.”

Craig felt relieve he got off the hook and didn’t need to console Clyde because of his mum and trip home. He could stay the same ignorant jerk.

“No.”

“Come on dude, plee-aase, I lost one whole week and you know how much I suck in math.”

How Clyde made it to college was a miracle in the first place. Oh wait, it had been sports. His goddamn football scholarship. While geeks like Craig would have to work their asses off to repay their student loans.

“I’ve got to learn myself, Clyde, don’t you have a study group with your colleagues?”

Clyde pouted. “I didn’t get their explanation. Even though you’re linguistically impaired, you’re still damn good in explaining that boring shit. Also you weren’t studying right now anyway, but procasturbating.”

“The heck do you know?!” Craig got defensive. And hot at his cheeks.

“Hah! Busted!” Clyde grinned, “I bet ya when I open the laptop there’s a freaking porn running! No wait, it’s some geeky documentation about space, which is like porn to you.”

“Nope. And watching those documentations is studying and not procrastur-whatever.”

Clyde laughed and got off of Craig. In high school he had helped Clyde with his math homework all the time, but in college Craig had no intention to keep up with the tutoring. It was too time consuming and the themes they calculated were also totally different.

He felt a bit bad though, at least a bit conversation they could do, as Clyde for sure had the wish to tell from the week he had been gone. “How’s your dad doing?”

“He finally found a small flat to rent to save some money. Claire and I will have to help him tidy up the house during summer break.”

Craig nodded, but said nothing in return. With the way Clyde described their situation Mr. Donovan should have changed that big house for a small flat when Clyde’s sister moved out two years ago. He supposed it was good he finally did.

“We’ll have to sort what to throw away. We tried to start during the week, but it’s just hard to say goodbye to all the memories. You know?”

Craig nodded again and Clyde went on about his week. Choking once or twice, but luckily didn’t start crying. Craig looked at the ground, so Clyde could hide it if he did start crying and he himself had an excuse to not say anything about it.

Then Clyde changed the topic and Craig could look at him again. “Oh, and I met Ruby, she gave me a message for you.” Clyde lifted his middle finger at Craig, who hinted a grin before he returned the gesture. A sort of greeting he would expect from his sister.

His roommate finally let Craig be, and when he reopened his laptop Tweek’s punch got dodged and he got hit instead and landed on the floor. The image got blurry from the person filming the shot lifting his hands and screaming. Then the video ended.

Craig sighed.

He took a moment to consider his options of what to do next. After Clyde’s very accurate critique he should probably stop with the ‘procasturbating’ and try to be actually productive at least a little bit today.

Mh.

Suck it. He wanted to go back to room 304 and knock.

 


	4. Say 'Hi' part two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This thing is a mess, but let's have some fun anyway :)  
> thx to anyone still supporting me despite being so inconsistent with writing ^^°

There he stood nearly shitting his pants just because he never learned to smile when greeting someone. Or greeting someone, that it. In his family showing off the middle finger had been the equivalent to ‘welcome home’, ‘have a nice day’, ‘good night’, yeah, any kind words.

Any words.

It took him until middle school before he finally grasped that his family was special with that gesture. Or totally idiotic, depending on how one wants to look at it. His whole childhood it had been irritating that everyone seemed so damn angry at every nice gesture he showed them.

And during middle school, even though he stopped to raise his finger, he still earned either disinterested or scared looks. It was then that he raised his finger to convey them what people always had seen in that finger anyway.

All of this aside, he was still standing in front of Tweek’s room. One last deep breath before he raised his fist. _Don’t hesitate now!_ He knocked, two times, then he got unsure about how often to knock, there was a tensed moment of hesitation before he knocked a third time, weak and halfheartedly. Shit, he was so fucking lame.

If he started running now would he make it to the stairs before he got caught? Chances were bad, he wasn’t the fastest one, we already talked about his missing athleticism.

He heard thumps, the clumsy oaf made his way to the door. Hopefully it was the clumsy oaf he wanted to see. There, the door opened and the first thing Craig saw was damp and tamed blond hair illuminated by a lamp in the room. He felt a tug at his mouth corners when he recognized it was in fact the clumsy oaf he wanted to see standing in front of him.

Tweek’s eyes enlarged at first, but when he recognized Craig his mouth formed a smile as well.

He must be fresh out of the shower. His hair was straggly from being combed while being wet and some water drops still lingered at his neck. Craig might forget how to breathe. Tweek looked good like that. He was wearing those loosely fitting sweatpants Craig was familiar with from their first meeting and a hilarious shirt. It was black with the words ‘gay agenda’ written on it and a schedule underneath.

Mon: be gay, Tues: Coffee, Wed: be gay, Thurs: be gay, Fri: super gay, Sat: super gay, Sun: brunch gay. Way better than the green shirt, Craig thought. This guy should be forbidden to wear anything but pride shirts.

“Hi,” Tweek greeted.

“Hi.”

Wow, his plan had been successful. And with that Craig realized that his plan right now was just as bad thought out as his plan this afternoon had been. He still didn’t know what steps came after ‘hi’. Being nervous and starting to panic was probably not the next step. He did it anyway, and his face probably changed expression, because Tweek picked up on it.

“You okay?”

“uh, yeah, I, uhm,” he lifted his hand to scratch his neck, “wanted to say hi.”

Wow, he had so much grace. It only now occurred to him that Tweek might be busy. How stupid would he look if he just let it be and left now?

“Cool. Come in,” Tweek beamed at him and suddenly Craig was standing in that weirdly split room.

That had been easy.

Tweek closed the door. “You want some coffee?”

“No.”

Craig looked at his left to see the emo sit at his bed in between all that black. Headphones on. They were staring at each other, just as useless and deadpan than before. His eyes narrowed, Craig really didn’t like that guy.

“That’s Pete. Pete this is Craig.”

Craig doubted if the guy even heard them, but then he slipped the headphones to his shoulders. “Hi.”

Craig grunted a greeting back. He then made a point about seating himself at Tweek’s bed. It was uninvited cause Tweek hadn’t asked him to sit down so far, though Craig didn’t want to talk with Pete and he wanted to make a statement towards him. _Look, we actually are friends!_ That’s why he kept staring at that guy until Pete put his headphones back on. Good. Message received.

Tweek stood at the couch table and bend down to work at the coffee machine. Luckily he wasn’t offended by Craig’s cheekiness, but gave him a smile before he opened a half filled package of coffee beans to fill the machine, the reflective foil was colored in ruby and stated ‘Tweek Bros. dark roast’. Craig figured that was probably were Tweek’s nickname came from. He must be addicted to that stuff if he wanted to get called after a coffee brand. Like last time the table was crowded with mugs and some of them had the Tweek Bros logo at them as well.

With his beverage finally finished and in his hand Tweek planted next to Craig on his bed. He was twitching while sitting down, but it was very subtle this time.

“So, how’s the studying going?”

Craig shrugged. Thought he realized he was doing the same mistake as in the library, so he forced himself to answer verbally.

He talked about his paper he struggles with. It was about sky observation methods, and for some reason his results didn’t quite match. He needed to revise the whole damn thing to find the error, and calling it inconvenient was a big underestimation.

After being asked he elaborated on the observation methods, and even through most of them were through telescope Tweek’s eyes grew bigger once he realized that Craig’s main job was to look at night skies.

“So you watch the sky regularly?” Tweek asked and his eyes had reached the size of saucers. “Have you ever seen an UFO?”

Craig hesitated a moment to adjust to the sudden change in topic. Tweek’s expression was a weird mixture of excitement and something else he couldn’t quit name. Fear maybe. Or expectation? Craig wasn’t sure what answer Tweek expected, and less had he any clue how he would react towards that answer.

“Not during college.”

“So you did?”

“I don’t know what I have seen.” Craig answered honestly and delivered one of his so well into his muscle memory engraved shrugs. He had seen giant guineas pigs, if that counts. “Why? You ever seen one?”

“Yes! I was ten and they appeared mostly when it had been snowing the day before.“

“What?” Craig hadn’t expected that answer.

“Looked like flat silver plates with lots of lights on them. Sometimes it was only one and sometimes it was more, but never more than three.”

“And what happened?”

“Nothing.”

“What do you mean ‘nothing’? They were just flying around? How long? How often?“

„For a week or two?“

“Seriously?!”

“I mean; they weren’t floating around for two weeks straight. It was just the time span of august when there was a chance to see them. And they were kinda standing at one point in the air and then vanished. Poof.”

Of the hurt he felt in them Craig was pretty sure this time his eyes were resembling saucers.

“Holy shit Tweek, you can’t tell me something like that and then just say ‘poof’ like it’s no big deal. Do you have any explanation?”

“I thought you might had seen something like that when searching sky and all that, so you might have an explanation?”

“No, I don’t.”

They fell into silence, with Craig frowning. Though it wasn’t the first time he heard of visitors witnesses.

“Well, maybe I had just seen things. I was ten, everyone just said I was seeing things.” Tweek shrugged. He folded his knees to his chin and looked at his feet. And he looked strange, kind of gloomy.

„Do you think you had been seeing things?“

Tweek shrugged again.

“I’m not sure.” He was fumbling with his toes.

Sad. He looked sad. Also, he was visibly trembling now. There must be something hurtful about witnessing something supernatural and not being believed in. The sight of him hunched up and sad tugged at a string of Craig. He didn’t want to see him like that.

“In my study field are a bunch of nerds who meet up regularly and try to find proof for alien lifeforms. I’m sure they will listen, and they collaborate with Cenap. They have a big archive of stuff they collected so far, if you remember where it happened they could dig into it.”

“I heard of Cenap, never reported though…”

“The nerd club meets Tuesdays, just go there tomorrow.”

Tweek stopped trembling, looked up and smiled at him, it was pure relieve for Craig who never intended to make him sad in the first place. Tweek changed his legs back into a crossed position and Craig mirrored the relaxation with lowering his shoulders. This was way better.

“How’s your studying going?” Craig asked in return.

“Bad. Let’s keep talking about something else than college.“

“Okay.“

Craig looked at him and Tweek was tugging a strand of hair behind his ear before sipping at his coffee.

They sat in silence, both too uninspired to find a good topic. Tweek kept sipping from his coffee rather content with the lack of communication while Craig chewed the insides of his cheek. This silence was the death of him.

Maybe Kevin had a point in calling it a big deal when Craig made a new friend, seeing as how he failed in social interaction again. He tried to recollect how he had become friends with Clyde, though the memory was lost in so many layers of dust of the past he wasn’t able to wipe it free. They had been neighbors since forever and Clyde was extroverted like no one else Craig knew, he was attracting people like bees around a honey pot. And Craig was no bee, but Clyde was kind of dumb in those demands, he just never accepted any rejection. So probably Clyde had just stuck around Craig until he accepted his fate to never get rid of this kid and gave in into being friends with him.

Talking with Kevin had been easy since they had to work on that one project in their first semester together. Though they were study pals, not friends. And Token befriending him was thanks to Clyde. Actually, all his school acquaintances he had, had been thanks to Clyde. Though, no, there was one other friend, one very close friend he didn’t knew through Clyde.

Thomas. Of course, Thomas. The first thing Craig ever said to him was ‘Could I do your laundry?’. God, what an awkward way to get to know someone. Well, to his accounts, it had worked! Though maybe that was because in the same breath he had told him how cool he was. And Thomas had been desperate for people back then.

Craig took a look at the ground. The piles of clothes lying around had doubled since the last time; obviously Tweek was in need to wash his clothes and Craig liked doing laundry. It was just so boring that he thought of it as relaxing. Yet he was probably the only person on earth thinking that way. Token and Clyde had laughed at him when Thomas told them about how they met. And they had made lewd comments, questioning his heterosexuality and the innocence of his offer. He had been highly offended by that accusation back then, and still was, even though they had been proven right one year later when Thomas was the one who asked if Craig wanted to do some ‘laundry’.

With heat rising all 6`5 feet from his toes to his cheeks he realized that it was probably a dumb idea to ask Tweek if he wanted him to do his laundry. He should think about another way to keep the conversation going. Luckily Tweek had a better idea with suggesting for them to just watch a movie, Craig nodded furiously.

They got comfortable next to each other with their backs leaned against some pillows at Tweek’s headboard and Tweek’s laptop on his bed’s foot end. They watched Karate Kid, the original version from 1984. Craig had problems to concentrate in the small bed with their thighs pressed against each other and the smell of Tweek’s soap and coffee filling his nose. Every so often he found himself side eyeing the little twink. The place their thighs touched grew very hot and he had to suppress his urge to move around and change his sitting position. After all it didn’t help him in feeling more content with sitting this cramped at Tweek’s bed but he only bumped his leg repeatedly and got a side-glance from Tweek in return. Though Tweek was bumping him just as often, as he yet had that tic of twitching.

Craig finally changed his position, just for their tights to bump into each other again.

“Are you nervous?” Tweek asked. And he twitched, like maybe he was nervous as well.

Busted!

“What?” Craig screeched, desperately trying to play it cool, not let it show. Yet he was such a bad actor.

“You’re thinking about studying right now? I’m sorry I make you waste your time with me.” Craig was perplexed, and Tweek looked so guild ridden. He paused the movie, and then he twitched again.

“What?! No… I mean…” Craig blushed. He wasn’t going to say the truth just now. _I’m nervous because you’re cute._ It was even cute how Tweek was coming up with excuses for Craig. Hey, why not use this misunderstanding as his excuse. “Well I’m trying not to think about college, it’s just hard to relax with finals approaching.” Craig sighed. “I wouldn’t work on my assignments now anyway but procrasturbate instead, so it’s fine to stay here.”

Tweek giggled “procrasturbate?”

“You know what I mean.”

Tweek was still giggling, then he reached for his nightstand. “If you don’t relax from now and then your studying will be ineffective. So, I hope staying with me is no waste of time for you.”

“It’s fine.”

Tweek took out a bag of pot out of his nightstand and something that looked like an ugly glass vase. When he started preparing the pot Craig realized the glass thing to be a bong. Craig’s enthusiasm fell and he simply watched Tweek working with the grass like a pro.

“This will relax you.” Tweek offered. Craig didn’t move and looked at the glass bottle.

After a while of inactivity on Craig’s part Tweek paddled backwards, “You don’t have to.”

“I don’t know how.” Craig admitted. Judging by the way Tweek grinned he must have sounded naive and stupid. Tweek started explaining while showing. He put his lighter at the handle, where the pot was allocated. He had gnarly hands, slight bruises at his knuckles, but they were gentle when they clicked the lighter. At the vases opening he breathed in and the water inside the bong gurgled. Tweek looked pleased while he moved back into an upwards sitting position. His mouth curled and his eyelashes fluttered when he tried to hold the breath in his lungs for as long as possible. Their eyes met when he opened them, but slowly Craig’s view got foggy when Tweek also breathed out. Craig swallowed.

“I don’t want you to yell in the halls this time.”

Tweek grinned. “No yelling?”

“No.”

“No party?”

“No.”

“Seriously, you need to relax.”

He was offering the stupid glass. When letting joints round between his friends as teens it never did that much for Craig, yet right now he was considering it. He probably shouldn’t support drug use like this, but Tweek’s lips had touched this glass. His damn, perfect lips. Craig breathed in, and instead of thinking of the tangy taste filling his lungs he thought about the indirect kiss they shared this way.


	5. Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the fantastic Kio Risin is my betareader now! :) It's so amazing to have a betareader, thank you so much <3

There was a Beep next to his bed.

Unaware Craig turned around and draped his blanket along to keep the warmth around his body when he nestled back into his new position. The comfort his bed provided made him sigh. Then he opened his eyes. Hadn’t there been a sound? His phone lay dutifully on the ground next to his bed and he stretched his arm out of his nest to reach for it.

There waited a text message for him to read.

_“Good morning.”_

The message was from Tweek. Irritated by the message Craig turned around a second time. It was 9 am, two hours before his first Tuesday lesson, though Tweek didn’t knew his schedule. Still, why would someone do unnecessary Smalltalk through text messages? Early in the morning? Slightly puzzled Craig answered anyway.

_“Good morning”_

Only seconds later his phone beeped again.

 _“Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you”,_ the message read. Craig just had enough time to read it when another message appeared, _“Did I wake you?”,_ and another, _"how did you sleep?"_

Weird. Craig stared at the letters like they were surreal. This guy was just weird. Forced to have social interaction before any cell of his brain was awake Craig wrote: _"Okay"_ and felt as plain as his writing skills. This whole interaction was just stupid.

_"Cool :)"_

Again, he could do nothing but stare at the message. At the little smiley. When they exchanged phone numbers at the end of last night Craig didn’t expect Tweek to be a guy to write such random messages. And so many.

Luckily they didn’t end up yelling in the halls last evening. Pete joined them when he smelled the drugs and even though Craig was displeased at first, Pete turned out to be okay. Or maybe it was the pot that made him relax. Tweek mellowed out the most, he didn’t twitch at all for the reminder of the evening. They forgot about the movie and were laughing about this and that and basically anything, it had been a nice evening. Relaxing to the point Craig could feel comfortable despite their thighs touching while sitting at the cramped bed.

Craig sat up a little bit and stared at his mobile. He reasoned with himself. Maybe Tweek writing him wasn’t _that_ weird and this was normal social interaction. Clyde tended to write him random messages as well. At least he did in the beginning before Craig’s lack of responses killed his enthusiasm. Though this was text messages. Easy. What did he have to lose?

Craig decided to give it a try. _"And you?"_

_"Meh :("_

_"what happened?"_  

 _"I had a weird dream"_ Tweek wrote, and then a second message right after _, “Gnomes tried to steal my underwear."_

Craig grinned by the imagination. Dude, why was Tweek telling him this?! And why was he dreaming something like that in the first place? _"Well that’s weird."_

Then he remembered something. Tweek didn’t wear underwear. When the image popped up he wondered why his brain was so horribly visual, always supplying him images to his thoughts. Also, supplying him with sassy comments.

 _“Don’t worry. What underwear could they steal anyway_?"

This was outside of Craig’s morning routine. Outside his comfort zone. Not the normal boring way he started the day, so his cheeks burnt. It was way too early for his cheeks to burn. He looked at the message he just wrote biting the insides of his cheeks. His heart pounding. Well at least he was fully awake now. For Tweek it was okay to write weird or absurd stuff, it was who he was, it kind of made sense. Tweek was charming in the way all his frames had an odd edge to them. Though Craig was nothing like that. He wondered whether this message was inappropriate.

He pressed the send button and immediately regretted it. This was a mistake. He went too far.

His phone buzzed with Tweek’s answer and Craig flinched because it didn’t took Tweek a minute to write back.

One deep breath and then he read the message.

_":P"_

This probably meant touché.

Craig didn’t respond. Though he made it out of bed quickly and for a change in routine started his day feeling alert.

  
***  


T: _"I tried a Hazel Frappuccino with strawberries and it sucked :("_

It was some hours after their first exchange of the day and as it happened this morning Craig was pathetically overwhelmed. What was he supposed to answer to that? Pity him? Have Schadenfreude?

 _"Suck it back?"_ he wrote.

 _"haha"_ Tweek answered, then send a second message, _"Sorry for writing nonsense.” And a third “what r u up to?"_

 _"Writing this shitty paper"_ Craig was yet not used to his mobile beeping so often. He sat at his desk, clearly distracted by the letters this strange guy was sending him: _"good luck :)"_

 

***

 

 _“Beyoncé is preggo!”_ Beeped Craig’s phone.

_“Okay.”_

_“Twins!”_ And then it beeped five times in a row, with one message and a couple of pictures. _“look at these pictures, it’s like she’s creating her own temple. Makes it way easier to worship her.”_

The picture showed a pregnant half naked Beyoncé. She was sitting with one hand at her belly and her hair covering her boobs. She was surrounded by flowers and a green translucent fabric hang like a veil over her head. Artistic decisions Craig would’ve chosen differently if he’d been in charge.

_“Well, have fun worshipping,” he wrote._

_T: “:)”_

The message was only two digital letters, though knowing they came from Tweek, knowing the way Tweek’s face brightens up when he smiles, Craig mirrored the gesture unconsciously.

_T: “Sorry for disturbing you.”_

_C: “It’s okay.”_

_C: “Just don’t come begging me for donations to build her a temple”_

_T: “I’m sorry Sir, do you have some time to discuss the religion of Beyoncé’s music?”_

T: _“Did you think about what Beyoncé did for you today?”_

C: _“Shut up”_

_T: “:P”._

T: _“Sorry”._

T: _“What are you doing?”_

_C: “Paper.”_

_T: “Good luck :)”_

 

***

   


Craig lay back in the warmth of his nest ready to fall asleep. If he'd ever marry than his bed. (Though preferably one where his feet fit into) a warm and fuzzy feeling spread in his belly when he read the message Tweek had just send him, _"Gn8."_  During the day, his thoughts changed from thinking ‘weird’ to thinking ‘cute’ when he received his random messages from Tweek.

 _"Gn8"_ he watched his own message appear in their chat window. Without long consideration, he added _“dream well"_

_"thanks :) u2"_

Craig lay his phone at the ground and when he closed his eyes he saw that worshipping Beyoncé picture Tweek had send him. Instead of the queen there sat Tweek with the most beautiful smile. Instead of a round belly he petted the guinea pig Stripe who sat on his lap. It was perfect.

Actually, it was kind of disturbing. The picture producing parts of Craig’s brain were absolutely nuts to provide him with something like this. His only hope was to find sleep soon and with any luck not dream about worshiping a little Twink in them.

 

***

 

The rest of the week was very busy. Classes, studying, papers. Craig ended up to almost do his whole paper over and restart from scratch. There was no use, as there was no way to renew the lost data though.

Tweek had sent him several text messages since and no matter what he had written, Craig had almost always answered through venting his annoyance about “ _this shitty paper!_ ” He wondered if his appearance resembled that of Tweek when he had seen him in the library. Stressed out of his mind.

College madness.

It was Thursday night and Craig slouched over his paper once again. His phone was buzzing like a humming bird, because Tweek just never let it be by that one answer of Craig. He had easily become a casual chat partner. It was way less complicated to talk to him through phone than when they sat next to each other. Craig had stayed informed about Tweek’s schedule and doings like their chat-window was his Twitter page. 

He wrote before his lecture and when it was over, before he went to the gym, when he was back, before he took a shower. He once wrote what felt like half a textbook that there was a whole lecture about ancient Egypt dedicated towards how gay Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep were. Which Tweek found to be awesome because 90% of academia texts before ignored their homosexuality in favor of calling it ‘brotherhood’.

Tweek also apologized a lot for writing so much and spamming Craig and said if he was overdoing it Craig should stop him; it was as stupid as it was charming, because the very next message he would send was about something other irrelevant. Tweek did this a lot. Be enthusiastic about something but then apologize.

Craig was kind of overwhelmed by this unexpected amount of interaction. But unlike Clyde Tweek seemed to cope well with Craig’s lack of responses. And Craig even grew to anticipate his messages like someone would anticipate their dessert.

Cutest thing was, that Tweek always asked what Craig was doing and then made sure to wish Craig good luck or much fun for his own activities. Even if it was something tedious like laundry. Which Craig, like the boring old men he was, did each week the same time, which happened to be Wednesdays. Craig smiled when he received Tweek’s message then, “ _ok, have fun :)_ ”. He was sure Tweek wasn’t mocking him, but meant it. Which made this whole lot of receiving and writing messages very enjoyable to him.

 _“I’m so tired”,_ the message Craig had just received stated. Craig sat up when he read it and only then noticed his back ache from being hunched up half the day. He answered with the simple instruction for Tweek to go to bed. Then he stretched out. He could use a break from this cursed paper and looking his desk over he saw the staple of calculation homework he needed to revise to learn for that exam as well. No time for a break. He looked over his shoulder to see Clyde hunched over his economics textbook. This was going to be a long night for them both.

His phone buzzed relatively late with Tweek’s answer, _‘Right’._

The message’ shortness was uncharacteristic for Tweek, so Craig knew he wasn’t convinced. Nonetheless Craig simply wrote him _‘Gn8’_ and received the same abbreviation with a smiley emoji as answer.

Craig left the room to get a coke from the vending machines on the floor and then kept working for so long until his head spun like a dreidel. It was almost 1 am when he made it to his bed, today he wouldn’t become any younger. Clyde was yet sitting at his own desk, so there was still a dim light on. Craig closed his eyes and let exhaustion sink into his bones when his phone buzzed ones again. He groaned, yet unlocked the screen. As expected it was from Tweek.

_T: “Craig?”_

_T: “Are you awake?”_

Their last exchange had been two hours prior.

_C: “Didn’t you go to bed?”_

_T: “I can’t sleep.”_

And then one text message plopped up on the screen after the other.

_T: “Sorry, it’s late, did I wake you?”_

_T: “I didn’t mean to wake you.”_

_T: “Sorry, forgot what I said”_

_T: “Just go back to sleep.”_

He was rambling once again and Craig could practically see him tremble and twitch. Lying in his bed with his eyes tired and sunken but opened.

C: “ _Dude, I’m fine.”_

T: ” _Sorry”_

_C: “You didn’t wake me. Chill.”_

_T: “Oh, okay.”_

Craig hesitated, then asked, _“want me to come over?”_

Last time Tweek couldn’t sleep he wanted Craig to stay, so he figured to suggest it. Even though last time it didn’t help with getting him to sleep. Only after sending the suggestion Craig noticed how nervous he was over the idea of him staying at Tweek’s place once again. A long moment there came no reply from Tweek. Craig turned to his side, impatience growing when his screen went dark from his inactivity and he had to hit the unlock button. This happening several times was just as unnerving. Craig came to be accustomed to Tweek’s rapid texting, so this wait was way too long. Something was wrong. He unlocked his screen again, while sucking the insides of his cheek.

There came his reply: “ _Dunno. Pete’s sleeping.”_

_T: “Without headphones.”_

Craig sighed, though he came up with another idea. “ _Let’s go for a walk?”_

Tweek agreed, and they arranged to meet at the stairs in five minutes. Craig slipped out of his bed that had just become warm and comfy and put his sweatpants on. He was wearing his favorite shirt, it was grey and had the NASA logo at the front, but the word ‘NASTY’ was written instead. He didn’t want to change the shirt so he just put his blue jacket over it. The floor wasn’t covered with his laundry anymore so he had to make all his way to the closet for his jacket and then moved through the room to search for his trademark hat.

The sudden activity made Clyde to look at him, astonished.

„You’re going out?“

„For a walk.“

„You just laid yourself to sleep?“ Clyde questioned.

Craig just shrugged while he put his hat on. Like it was any of Clyde’s business.

“You go alone?”

“No, _mum_ , I’ll go with Tweek.”

“Who’s Tweek?”

Craig didn’t answer and put his shoes on instead.

“If they’re your drug dealer you better share with me.”

“He’s not a drug dealer, just a friend.”

“Wait?! When did you made a new friend?!” Clyde jumped off his chair and Craig came to a halt with putting his shoes on to frown at him.

“Why is everyone acting like this is a big deal?”

“Maybe ‘cause it is a big deal?! We live on campus for a year and you still made no other new friend than Kevin!”

“Shut up.”                                             

“Ahw, Craig, I’m so happy for you.” Clyde’s grin was filled with proud like a mother would be at the first ‘A’ her child received at school. He reached out to hug Craig, which Craig barely dodged.

“Is he the one you’ve been texting with all day long? And I thought you might finally get a girlfriend,” he said with a condescending smile. He’d deserve to be punched for that comment. “You need to tell me about him, what’s he like? Is he in one of your courses?”

He reached out for Craig a second time and this time he was too late in dodging, the leech hung at Craig, with his chubby arms in a death grip around him. Gross. Clyde had been voted unofficial best hugger in middle school, yet this didn’t meant Craig liked hugs.

“Drop it Clyde!”

“Did you ask him to do his laundry yet?” Clyde laughed and Craig boxed his shoulder. It worked, he finally let go off Craig, to rub his sore spot. “Ouch” he complained over dramatically.

“Okay, I get it, you better hurry; don’t want to let your date wait.” Clyde wiggled his eyebrows and Craig sweared to god. He took his blue scarf from the doors hanger and practically fled from their room.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, I’m way too slow in writing to in cooperate real live events. In real life Beyoncé Twins are already born, oops xD°


End file.
